Emma Raducanu has dismissed concerns over a back injury after she had a medical timeout during her quarter-final defeat to Qinwen Zheng at Queen’s Club.
The Brit had two impressive wins against Cristina Bucsa and Rebecca Sramkova heading into her quarter-final match with the Olympic champion.
However, Raducanu easily lost the first set and had work to do in the second set with that task being made even harder by having a medical timeout on her back.
It was a decent start to the second set from Raducanu who went a double break ahead at 3-0 with Qinwen Zheng struggling with her serve.
In the end Zheng was too much for Raducanu as the top seed won 6-2 6-4 to set up a semi-final with Amanda Anisimova.
After the match Raducanu didn’t have too many concerns about her back injury although she described it as ‘annoying,’ “I’m not overly concerned that it’s something serious, but I know it’s something that’s very annoying and needs proper and careful management,” Raducanu told The Guardian.
“It’s been lingering for the last few weeks, and I have had back issues before. I think it’s just a vulnerability of mine. I know I need to take good care of it.”
Despite the defeat it has been a positive week for Raducanu who will become the new British number one on Monday after Katie Boulter’s second round exit.
Reflecting on her loss to Zheng Raducanu praised the top seed and admits there is work to do ahead of the remainder of the grass court, “I think returning is one of my big strengths, and I think Qinwen served really well,” Raducanu explained to The Guardian.
“I didn’t see many second serves. And she hit her spots really well in some big moments. Credit to her. She kind of took away one of my bigger strengths. I think I have a lot of work to do, to be honest.”
Should Raducanu be fit then her next tournament will be at the WTA 500 event in Berlin next week.
